After four months of honest endeavour, it all came down to five seconds of magic

It was almost over in the blink of an eye. In the handful of strides she needed to make Crystal Ocean go from looking comfortable to gasping for air, Enable gave us what we had been waiting to see all summer.

Never mind explosive sprinters, or even stayers of the calibre of Stradivarius, middle-distance racing is where it’s at. The requisite blend of speed and stamina represents a fusion of the thoroughbred’s finest virtues. It’s an oft-elusive balance, as evidenced by the number of horses bred for middle distances who are just plain slow, yet it represents what Britain and Ireland do best. On the rare occasion that all the pieces fall into place, you end up with a horse who looks invincible.

Enable is that horse. It’s rare to hear pundits so united over the outcome of the Arc fully four weeks ahead of race. The Parisian feature usually has so much in-depth strength most observers hold fire until the big day. Not so after Enable gambolled to victory at Kempton on Saturday. Individual voices became a choir singing paeans of praise.